 "Uphill the Hero" (2022 No.4, state 6), oil on canvas, 60x56⅝ inches I have revisited myself. I have reminded myself. The reason I paint is to tell stories, stories of myself. I love telling stories filled with my perceptions, my feeling, my emotions, my intellectual questions, my intellectual answers. With this painting I have come home, a home respecting my most basic love. This is the reason I make Art. I make Art to tell about my here and Now and those stories that give me wonder and my love for living.
 "Tonstant Weader Fwowed Up" (2021 No.10, state 12), oil on canvas, 56x62¼ inches, {"And it is that word 'hummy', my darlings, that marks the first place in 'The House at Pooh Corner' at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up." - Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), in "The New Yorker", 20 October 1928, reviewed by Dorothy Parker as "Constant Reader"} "Tonstant Weader Fwowed Up" is pretty much repainted. I wish to think through a few more details, but, like "Gonna Speak to the Crowd", it is approaching a place where there is nowhere else to go. To go, I must begin a new painting, which is exactly where I am headed. As much as I like pushing these excellent works to ultimate conclusion, I very much want to move on. Thankfully, I have my drawings, as one day activities, to keep my investigation of fresh ideas handy, and accessible.
 Drawing 12·29·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 12·29·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Positive forms are always important. Balance of negative and positive can occur when negative space is recognized as brilliantly important. Negative/positive balance does occur naturally, from atoms to the earth's environment. These drawings illustrate my embrace of balance. Terrible is the result when things are out of balance; witness global warming.
Color balance brings harmony to a composition. Dynamic color imbalance causes disturbing emotional reactions, which may be useful to self-expression. Negative/positive space imbalance should be explored for self-expressive purposes.  Drawing 12·15·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches  Drawing 12·15·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches So what-ta-ya think? Blah, blah, blah... I am in the midst of research and development. Anything I say right now will be similar in tone to the pundits on ESPN or CNBC, pretending to be in the know; today they predict the outcome of Super Bowl 2022 and next week's stock market trends. Well, I am here. I don't know where I am going. I do know I am embarked upon a reasonable and intelligent journey.
These two drawing sparkle with ideas. They sit with impact and truth. Enjoy! (blah, blah, blah...)  Drawing 04·13·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 04·06·2021 (state 2), pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Blink then look. First drawing is yesterday's. Second drawing was first performed on 4/6/2021, then revised yesterday; go back to my blog post of 4/7/2021 to see state 1 of the same drawing. Here are examples of solidification of truth and ideas. Ideas compete with truth to find finality as pencil marks.
 Drawing 04·06·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches When I am in the studio nothing is dull, there is no ennui, just drama driven durance. I am captive to myself, captive to my ideas, flood they do, one on top of the next. Each work I do insights and invigorates me. Yesterday's drawing implores things to consider, more ideas, more joyous imprisonment in my studio.
 "In the Lost Negative" (2021 No.2, state 2), oil on canvas, 49¾ x58½ inches {We only live between before we are and what we were. In the lost negative you exist... Three ages in a flash: the same child in the same picture, he, I, you..." - Robert Lowell, "For Sheridan"}  Drawing 01·31·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches  Drawing 01·31·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches What's it all about? I am not sure. I know I must seek. I believe I am finding. This is real stuff, images with meaning. Am I delusional? I can not answer. I do know it feels right and good to seek, to find, to deliberate. I am alive!
 "Clever Liars" (2020 No.1, state 13), oil on canvas, 56½x47½ inches {"Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don't!" - anonymous}  Drawing 12·31·2020, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches 2020 ends with me completing the first painting I began in 2020, "Clever Liars." This year has been an interesting journey. All in all, the 2020 journey has been fruitful. Obviously there has also been an abundance of fear. Yet here we are. Where there is life there is hope. My hope is unrelenting. My ambition is unrelenting. The two works shown today are cumulative, filled with ideas explored in 2020. These are, as I always say, stepping stones, but they are also works completed. Joy comes when I accept the success that is made real in artworks completed. I want to do more because each work completed instigates ideas. I want to explore and research every idea. I enter 2021 with oodles to explore.
 Drawing 10·11·2020 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches  Drawing 10·11·2020 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Energy in movement is reentering my work — BIG! I have missed it. There is wonder in me of where things go in the interim between search and find. I search for nirvana in personal mindfulness, yet I often wander through a maze of ideas in my hunt for pure, blissful, truth telling. These drawings do speak loudly of the importance of being present while drawing, present as one is in the energy of one's mind. These drawings speak of me and not of ideals or delusive inquires into those who have come before me.
 Drawing 06·25·2020, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I am a wave. I am a progressive. I surprise myself. I create stuff never seen before. I will continue, one day at a time, one step at a time, on a path to a place unknown. I am surprised; I am surprised everyday.
I heard Dave Chappelle say our current President is not the wave, he is surfing the wave. Waves go in and out. Idiots can surf, but they are unable to be the wave itself. Political progressives are waves. They are splashing onto our cultural beaches. Progressives erode our culture's ingrained, holdover ideas. Norms must be overhauled for our culture to be the best it can be. Progressives see a better way. It is unfortunate our current President has a bully pulpit; he calls to his slow-minded admirers, who want nothing to change. Progressives will replace the old with better. Progressives are creative, as creative as the wind that drives them. The wind moves our culture in the right direction. Unfortunately, we are forced to watch our President, an angry surfer, who speaks as if there is no Global Warming, as if nothing is changing. This guy likes the old ride, he likes his old Cadillac, not a new Tesla. His craziness is his old, dreary ideas; ideas that were set in the early days of our Republic. Old ideas need to change in order to recognize who we are right now. Our old man President learned to surf a long time ago. It is unfortunate his mind is not open to our needs. Changes are required in order to make us a better Republic. |
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At MEHRBACH.com you may view many of my paintings and drawings, past and present, and see details about my life and work. Archives
June 2022
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